SUV probe

Safety officials have ended a probe into allegations that three Ford SUVs can roll away even when they have been shifted into park.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said the investigation involved about 1.5 million Ford Explorer, Mercury Mountaineer and Lincoln Aviator SUVs from the 2002 to 2005 model years.

The agency determined that failure rates on transmission and brake parts weren’t high enough to take further action, such as a recall.

The probe began in April 2009 and was closed on Feb. 12, the agency said.

The NHTSA found 36 complaints, including 14 crashes and six injuries.

Investigators found that the park gear in the transmission failed only 4.4 times per 100,000 vehicles. A system that prevents the car from being shifted into gear unless the driver’s foot is on the brake failed only 3.4 times per 100,000 SUVs.

McDonald’s sales slip

McDonald’s new Fish McBites failed to hook enough diners to get the fast food chain’s U.S. sales growing in February.

The world’s biggest hamburger chain said a key sales figure was down 3.3 percent in the U.S. for the month. When excluding the extra day of sales for February of last year, which was a leap year, the company said the figure was flat. That was despite the rollout of the Fish McBites nuggets in three sizes, which were also offered as the first new Happy Meal entree in a decade.

K-Y Jelly recalled

Johnson & Johnson has quietly recalled some of its popular personal lubricants to avert potentially expensive new regulatory reviews.

The health products giant’s McNeil unit removed three types of K-Y Jelly from pharmacy and grocery store shelves and recalled packages from wholesalers at the end of January.

The recalled brands are K-Y Tingling Jelly, K-Y Sensitive Jelly and K-Y Silk-E Vaginal Moisturizer and Personal Lubricant.

McNeil said all three are safe and there are no “product performance issues,” so consumers can keep using any they have left.

Text messaging scam

The Federal Trade Commission filed eight lawsuits in federal courts around the country against companies it accused of ordering or engineering the sending of hundreds of millions of scam text messages to mobile phone users.

The text messages, which typically promise gift cards to national chain stores or other prizes, are sent to random phone numbers and usually direct recipients to a website where they are asked for personal information, including Social Security numbers, credit card numbers or other data, FTC officials said.

Good catch

The Justice Department’s consumer protection initiatives have recovered more than $5.89 billion since 2009 and have led to more than 140 criminal convictions and prison sentences of more than 327 years.

The department’s civil division released the figures Friday at a meeting of more than two dozen state and federal agencies focused on combating fraud against consumers.